The invention relates to a safety belt installation for occupants of a motor car.
It has already been proposed to leave some space between a safety belt and the occupant of a vehicle equipped with said safety belt as long as the vehicle is not undergoing an important collision so that the occupant has relative freedom of movement under normal circumstances.
It has also been proposed to take up this space, even to tension the belt against the user, when important collisions take place, for example by means of a play take-up piston capable of being activated by a pressurised gas released when means controlled by inertia detection mechanisms are rendered operational. Installations which operate under such a principle require numerous complicated devices and additionally have the disadvantage of unreliability and an unacceptable risk of coming into operation at the wrong time.
It has also been proposed, in view of absorbing small impacts, to equip a motor vehicle with an impact absorber or snubber, particularly of the hydraulic type at bumper level.